Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Slow Suffocation

I was on my way to a shop in a populated district of Cairo one day. I usually try to avoid this area due to its packed streets and traffic-jams. I had to circle a number of times around my target destination to find a parking spot. The streets were unbelievably packed, either side. Rows and rows of cars lining the tiny streets. In many cases there were two rows of cars parked and cars parked on the sidewalks. Sidewalks literally do not exist in most of Cairo. This left only one tiny lane for cars to move through, and in many cases for the cars to move through both ways.

Its an absolute disgrace and should be at the top of someone's priorities. In some cases in Haram (a Western district of Cairo which contains the Great Pyramids of Giza) there are roads that to me look more like a mountain range of dusty asphalt than an actual drivable road. I seriously can't believe that there is governance that have overlooked this for a very long time. Its more like the place is governing itself and the people are struggling along.

There are two vital roads that are traffic arteries in the Haram area. They decided to build a flyover connection which goes along one of them. Fair enough. This has been going on for a long time now and has literally blocked the this artery. I try to avoid it altogether. To make things worse they have decided to also start construction on the other vital road. They are doing something about the rubbish-filled Nile tributary which runs along the middle of the road. They are filling it up or something. So now you have two critical routes blocked with construction. I spent a hell of a long time in one of them a few days ago. Unfortunately I'm going to have to make that same trip again so I'm praying for a skycar or something to get me passed the hordes of cars, trucks and lorries.

Hoping for the best...

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